18 JUNE 2017 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG harvested at 90 percent survival or biomass of 8-10 t/ha after slightly more than five months of farming. Large commercial farms that formerly cultured Pacific white shrimp are now putting more effort toward black tiger shrimp farming to reduce losses due to uncontrolled disease problems in their Pacific white shrimp operations. Other commercial farms are reluctant to shift because most of them are already established as Pacific white shrimp producers in international markets. Furthermore, these farmers see that culture of black tiger shrimp is directed more toward smallvolume niche markets for large shrimp. Despite challenges with disease, shrimp farming continues to be the leading aquaculture activity in West and East Malaysia, where industrial farms dominate. The largest shrimp aquaculture enterprise is Blue Archipelago Berhad (BAB), established in 2007, which currently has 454 ponds over 1,000 ha. Large industrial farms (Sunlight, QL Resources, Asia Aquaculture (CP Group) in Sabah and Agrobest, BAB, Asia Aquaculture in West Malaysia) contribute 50 percent to national shrimp production. Large farms are integrated with hatchery, farm and processing facilities and focus on farming Pacific white shrimp. Third-party and in-house hatcheries produced an estimated 16 billion post-larvae in 2016. Marine Fish The culture of various marine fish was established some four decades ago in Penang and in the northern part of Peninsula Malaysia. Today, this culture industry has flourished to be a multimillion-dollar business, mainly supported by the pristine waters surrounding the Malay Archipelago and around the island of Borneo. Marine fish farming started with culture of the Asian seabass, which remains the main species. Today, there are at least 18 species of marine fish being farmed (DOF 2015). The most popular species are groupers and snappers. Among the groupers, the most popular species is the hybrid grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus × E. lanceolatus) followed by the tiger grouper E. fuscoguttatus, orange-spotted grouper E. coiodes and Malabar grouper E. malabricus. The most popular snappers are the yellow-streak snapper Lutjanus lemniscatus, mangrove snapper L. argentimaculatus, John’s snapper L. johnii and red snapper L. erythropterus. Other species are the fourfinger threadfin Eleutheronema tetradactylum, Indian threadfin Alectis indica, pompano Trachinotus blochii, milkfish Chanos chanos, and red tilapia. Except for the Asian seabass, the choice to culture other species is strongly determined by market trends for live fish, especially the export market in Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China. Farmers also change species when current stocks are affected by disease problems (Khoo and Merican 2009, Ferdouse 2014). The creation of the first hybrid grouper, a cross between the female tiger grouper E. fuscoguttatus with the male giant grouper E. lanceolatus was the work of Professor Shigeharu Senoo and the team at University Sabah Malaysia (UMS). This spurred development of various hybrids in the region, usually combining faster growth with better disease resistance. This also resulted in the creation of premium niche markets using names that are auspicious in Asia, such as giant tiger hybrid (Dragon Tiger Fish) and green giant hybrid (Green Dragon Fish). The main production system for groupers and snappers remains the traditional floating net-cages. Culture systems for seabass are mainly small- (3 m × 3 m) to medium-size cage (6 m × 6 m) farms. Stocking in cages varies from 300 to 1000 fingerlings/cage. The culture period extends 6 to 12 months, depending on species. Pond production of Asian seabass is getting popular following an increase in seed production. Shrimp farmers affected by disease shift to pond production of the seabass. The fish is marketed at 300-600 g or after 4-6 months of culture in ponds for local markets. For the export market, sizes are 3-5 kg per fish, farmed in ponds and coastal cages. Although the supply of hatchery-produced seedstock is Harvesting shrimp at the Integrated Shrimp Aquaculture Park (iSHARP) Farm, Blue Archipelago. Picture credit, BAB. Harvesting at a shrimp farm. Picture credit, Abdullah Rahim, UPM In 2015, Malaysia produced 7,800 t of various species of groupers.
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